With sharp intellect and warm humor, Lionel Morrison tells the story of the struggle for freedom in South Africa and beyond, revealing the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts
Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious its end is widely celebrated. Yet the monumental difficulties faced by the movement for liberation and the sacrifices made by ordinary yet remarkable individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.
Celebrated journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life, honoring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant in the Treason Trial and of periods in prison before being forced to flee South Africa as a stow away, meeting leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, the heady days of pan-African and Asian nationalism, and fighting racism in Britain.
Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.
Arvustused
"A deeply moving and inspiring portrait, from inside and out, of a trailblazer, a radical, and a true internationalist."
China Miéville, author of A Spectre, Haunting
"Footprints doesnt shy away from the failures and defeats of the Bandung era or the tenacity of racism in Britain. But Morrisons life is a testament to the power of journalism when it is committed to the cause of liberation."
Kevin Ochieng Okoth, author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics (2023)
"Anti-apartheid activist and journalist Lionel Morrisons footprints are embedded in South Africas long walk to freedom. Lionel died before he could bring his memoir to life but wife and intellectual companion Liz Morrison has brought together the missing pieces she is the sum of Lionels parts. From Cape Town to Cricklewood, walk alongside them."
Atiha Sen Gupta, playwright and screenwriter
"This is a marvellous book the testimony of a clever and brave black journalist who always managed to be at the centre of events and reported on them with unflinching clarity, in simple, luminous language, always putting human beings at the centre of his story.
Frances Beckett, author, journalist and playwright
"After passing his formative political years fighting apartheid in South Africaincluding being arrested and triedLionel Morrison left for England and immediately threw himself into activism, championing the struggle against racial inequality. Morrison led the National Union of Journalists as its first black president, and forged an architecture within the union that ushered in long-lasting changes benefiting Black journalists for generations to come."
Jim Boumelha, former president of the International Federation of Journalists
"Given all that Lionel had been throughprison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britainhe could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller."
from the foreword by Gary Younge
"The South African-born British journalist Lionel Morrison, who was jailed for anti-apartheid activism and even stood trial for treason, spent his life covering struggles for equality the world over. Morrison eventually passed away in 2016. Completed by his partner Liz, Footprints: A Black Journalists Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile tells the story of Morrisons life, including his time at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, the rise of pan-African nationalism, and the rebellious days of the UKs anti-racist and labor struggles."
Inkstick, Most Anticipated Books of 2026
Foreword by Gary Younge
Influential journalist Gary Younges brief foreword for the book describes
Lionel as a mentor and friend.
Introduction by Liz Morrison
Part I. South Africa
Chapter
1. The Net is Closing In
Lionel begins the book by describing his escape from South Africa, and
finding himself in exile in Britain.
Chapter
2. Standing up to Mr. Vorster
Lionel remembers his early childhood, his grandparents and cousins, in the
backdrop of a country sliding towards apartheid.
Chapter
3. School in Zululand
Lionel describes his years at school, and his political awakening in
Zululand. Lionels father takes him to Nelson Mandela for career advice.
Chapter
4. Politics. Politics.
Lionel traces his early political involvement in the campaign to draft South
Africas Freedom Charter, with input from thousands of participants around
the country.
Chapter
5. Turning Twenty-One in Prison
Lionel describes his first prison sentence, and the grim conditions of the
Fort.
Chapter
6. Agony Aunt with the Drum
Lionel remembers his first job as a journalist at Drum, an important magazine
that documented Black South African life, particularly during apartheid.
Chapter
7. On Trial for Treason
A riveting first-hand account of the Treason Trial in South Africa, in which
156 activists including Nelson Mandela were accused.
Chapter
8. A Struggle Over Representation
Lionel describes his disagreement with other comrades and splits in the South
African Coloured Peoples Organisation, which left him feeling isolated.
Chapter
9. Time to Go
Lionel is incarcerated once more after the notorious Sharpeville massacre,
and faces difficulties working as a journalist once he is released, finally
deciding to leave South Africa for Britain.
Part II. Exile
Chapter
10. A Very British Racism
Lionel begins his new life in London, working for the Anti-Apartheid
Movement, reconnecting with old friends now in exile, and campaigning against
apartheid within the unions.
Chapter
11. Behind the Iron Curtain
Lionel becomes involved in the Pan-Africanist Congress, non-aligned movement,
meets journalists in Eastern Europe, travels to Ghana, and lives on communes
in China, almost dying in a pigsty!
Chapter
12. A Coup
Lionel describes his time in Indonesia, going through a coup that led to the
devastating murder of his girlfriend and many friends, forcing him to
relocate to Algeria and then China.
Chapter
13. Kicked Out of Zambia
Lionel relocated to Zambia to continue his journalism, but was eventually
kicked out along with other members of the Pan-African Congress due to
rumours of an attempted coup.
Part III. Liz Morrison
Chapter
14. A New Start in London
Liz describes her experience of meeting and getting to know Lionel Morrison.
Chapter
15. A Marriage
Lionel and Liz get married; although, it becomes clear to Liz that Lionels
commitment to his work and activism will often take priority.
Chapter
16. Sued for Libel
Lionel faces a libel trial after writing an article about British police
racism.
Chapter
17. Meeting Lionels Family
Liz describes a moving, poignant trip to South Africa to meet Lionels
family.
Chapter
18. A Visa for Lionel
Lionels mother is diagnosed with cancer and after seventeen years, Lionel
manages to briefly return to South Africa before his mother passes away.
Chapter
19. Being Challenged
Liz recalls the difficult 1980s with Thatcher in power, a visit from Lionels
father, her sons friend, China Mieville, staying at their home over summer;
she speaks frankly about the challenge of being a white mother to two black
sons, and the mistakes she made along the way.
Chapter
20. First Black President
Liz writes about Lionels year as the first black president of the National
Union of Journalists in Britain, the battles he faced working under a
government hostile to strong unions, and the positive changes he encouraged
within the union.
Chapter
21. Health Matters
Lionel survives a serious heart attack, and is compelled to slow down.
Chapter
22. New South Africa
Nelson Mandela is released from prison, and a period of tense negotiations
ensues in South Africa. Lionel and Liz visit a new South Africa, travelling
there together for the first time.
Chapter
23. Housing Matter
Chapter
24. Lionel is Eighty
Lionel Morrison was a South African journalist and pan-Africanist. Along with 155 others including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, Morrison was tried for treason in 1956. Following his exile from South Africa, he embraced Sukarnos Indonesia, moved to China and was politically active across Africa before returning to Britain. His life's work focused on journalism, trade unionism, and housing activism. He was the first black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain.
Liz Morrison was born in England and is white. She was a community worker in the 1960s and a social worker. She has been actively supportive of the anti-apartheid movement for justice in South Africa and is active in supporting Palestine.
Gary Younge is a sociology professor at the University of Manchester. A new edition of his book Who Are We? How Identity Politics Took Over the World was published by Penguin in September.
